So whaddya wanna know?
BORN: Beloit, Wisconsin
GREW UP IN: Beloit, WI; Pittsburgh, PA;
Denver, CO; Redlands, CA
WHAT GOT ME STARTED IN MUSIC: I found my dad's double LP of Benny Goodman's 1938 Carnegie Hall Concert. Once I heard the beginning of "Don't Be That Way," I was never the same. My grandfather bought me a Bundy plastic clarinet at a garage sale (I think he bought it for $30) to assist me in my quest to be the second coming of Benny Goodman (although BG was still alive at the time).
CURIOSITY THAT DIDN'T KILL THE JAZZ CAT: While snooping around a living room bookshelf circa 1973, I came across my uncle's copy of the 1955 Encyclopedia of Jazz. That's where I expanded my vocabulary with terms such as "heroin," "cirrhosis," "tuberculosis," and "Riker's Island." I also learned about some amazing musicians. I was quite disappointed that my classmates at University Park Elementary School in Denver did not share my level of enthusiasm for the music or its creators.
CULTIVATING MY HABIT: Started clarinet at 9, alto sax at 13, tenor sax at 14. Played alto sax in high school marching band. At the risk of sounding blatantly unhip, I really liked marching band. The Redlands High Terrier Marching Band was a spit-and-polish unit, one of the best in Southern California at the time (before Proposition 13 really kicked into high gear). Put music on the back burner in college, during my budding revolutionary days, but...
CAME BACK TO MUSIC: After a couple of years as an overworked, underpaid political organizer-- I'll spare you the story-- I picked up the horns again. I started sitting in with Skychurch, a funk jam band that had a regular gig at Tropical Haight, a now-defunct club in the Lower Haight (it's "Molotov's" now, I believe). And then, a roommate started taking me to St. John's African Orthodox Church, a.k.a. The Church of John Coltrane, which led me to fully immerse myself in the music of Trane, Albert Ayler, Archie Shepp, John Tchicai, and others. And then, in 1992, a college friend told me about this jazz jam session on Sunday nights at Club Deluxe, near the corner of Haight and Ashbury. I'm glad I went-- I met many people then that I still play with today. I also met the legendary Vise Grip...
IS YOU IS, OR IS YOU AIN'T: At one of the Club Deluxe sessions, the bartender gets called up to the stage to sing a number. This stocky guy with a gleaming bald head-- the inimitable Vise Grip-- counts off "Is You Is or Is You Ain't My Baby," and soon drives the audience into a frenzy. A couple of weeks later, he asks me to join his band, St. Vitus Dance. Learned a lot about the Louies: Jordan and Prima. Met Royal Crown Revue...helped start and maintain a jazz quartet/quintet (the Section 8 Project) until 1996...freelanced here and there with countless bands until...
ARE THOSE STACY ADAMS? MY MAN'S GOT SOME STACY ADAMS! April 4th, 1997-- subbing with the Riff Rats at Club Deluxe: an old bandmate, Morty Okin, asks my to join the New Morty Show. Touring? Frequent trips to Vegas? Who was I to say no? Got to tour, got to record-- a good ride for two years...
1999: I started two long-term musical relationships: one with the Brass Monkey Brass Band and another with the Marcus Shelby Jazz Orchestra. I still perform with Brass Monkey. and I played with Marcus for nine years, mostly as a baritone saxophonist and bass clarinetist.
